Stepping Stones
by theforgetfulalchemist
Summary: Married life is hard. It's even harder when your brother lives with you. Carter and Sadie's adventures navigating their marriages and parenthood fifteen years after The Serpent's Shadow while still occasionally driving each other a little crazy. Because some things never change.
1. Chapter 1

Carter walked into the large foyer of Brooklyn House exhausted, scratching his thin beard.

In the fifteen years he had lived in the Brooklyn nome, he had never heard the place so quiet but it was four in the morning. Everyone was asleep.

"How's Zia?" A bright voice called with just a hint of a London accent that defiantly refused to go away.

Carter smiled wearily at his sister who was climbing down the stairs with two bottles of hair dye: one blue, one pink.

"Still in labor." Carter informed her as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"I just came home to rest and get some food. Where's Walt?"

"Putting the boy to bed" Sadie said, joining him. She looked forlornly at her dye. "I want to know which of these I should use, already."

She sighed. "Oh well. How you holding up, Carter?"

"Fine. Tired. Really need a drink."

Sadie grinned and produced two bottles of beer. "On that point, I have got you covered, brother dear."

Carter smiled appreciatively. They opened the bottles and drank.

"Hey, Sadie..." Carter ventured.

"Yeah?" Sadie replied.

"I'm going to be a dad." He said in awe, as if just realizing after nine months.

Sadie grinned. "I know. Exciting, isn't it?"

Carter nodded uncertainly. "But scary."

Sadie took his hand. "Carter, you are a right annoying pain in the arse brother..."

Carter snorted.

"...but you will be an amazing father. I promise you."

Carter smiled gratefully.

"What's it like? Being a parent?"

As if on cue, little feet crashed down the stairs and a small, three year old boy with chocolate milk skin and a thin buzz of black hair ran toward them, shouting energetically.

Sadie looked wryly at her brother. 'Patience trying, for one thing." she turned to her son. "Julius Walter Stone, what are you doing out of bed? Didn't your dad tuck you in?"

The boy toddled into his mother's lap.

"I,um, I" he babbled "I thought I heard uncle!"

Carter chuckled "I'm right here, champ."

He waved and Julius waved back, grinning delightedly.

Sadie sighed "Yes, yes, say hi to uncle Carter. Now, _bed_." she hefted him up.

"Dear lord, you're enormous. Well, I best put the boy to bed."

"Okay..." Carter's phone rang and he picked it up. "Hello? Yes, this is he. Hello. Really? Thank you! Yes, I'll be right there!"

he closed the phone, eyes gleaming. "Zia had the baby! A girl! I'm going over now."

He dashed for the door.

"Excellent." Sadie called after him. "I can finally dye my hair."

A few days later, Carter and Zia both came back in a taxi, a small brown form swathed in a pink blanket in Zia's hands.

Sadie, Walt and their son were there to greet them. Bast was with them, back for a visit to meet the baby. She peered over their shoulders, looking like she wanted to give the "new kitten" a bath.

"Look Jules" Walt said holding his son up so that he could see. "This is your new cousin."

"Her name's Alexandria" Zia said, cradling her tenderly. "Alexandria Ruby Kane."

Walt frowned. "Why that name?"

Carter coughed and blushed. "No reason."

Sadie smirked slyly. "Considering you two visited the nome in Alexandria and nine months later she was born, I think I know why."

Zia laughed as she, Bast and Sadie went upstairs to get the baby settled and to put Julius down for a nap. Bast still looked like she was thinking about that bath.

Walt and Carter settled on the couch, Walt shaking his head disbelievingly.

"Seems like just yesterday we were just kids." he said "Now you and Zia have a baby and I'm looking into kindergartens for my son."

Carter smiled. "I know. Remember how Julian used to hog this couch?"

"Yeah, and Shelby would draw while he watched ESPN. Gods of Egypt, she's in college now."

"Or Felix and his penguins? Wow, he's a father now too."

They sat in silence, wondering where the time had gone. They almost felt like boys again, learning to navigate school, girls, and running the nome. At the time, all of those things seemed daunting. But now the challenges ahead seemed even more insurmountable.

"Carter?"

"Yeah."

"This is going to be hard, isn't it?"

Carter smiled softly. "Yeah."

_A/N: I write something new again for once! I decided to do this because I loved how Brooklyn house was like one big family and I wanted to do something about that continuing on into the future. Plus the idea of Carter and Sadie having to deal with each other on top of the challenges of being married and raising kids was too amusing to me to pass up. Hope you liked this chapter and thank you for reading/ect.!_


	2. Chapter 2

"She's beautiful, you two." Sadie said happily, cradling her new niece.

It was a few weeks after Carter and Zia had brought Alexandria home. The Stones and the Kanes were enjoying breakfast on the dining alcove, throwing scraps to the pure white crocodile in the waters below.

Zia and Carter flushed with pride and happiness.

As Sadie admired the baby, Julius, who was sharing pancakes on his father's lap, scowled.

He jumped down and pushed his mother's arm as forcefully as he could.

"No, mama! Hold me!" he insisted "Not Alex!"

"Julius!" Walt shouted "Let your mother hold your cousin! Get back here and eat your pancake. Now."

Julius began to bawl.

"Here, I'll take her" Carter murmured, but before he could, the sugar bowl exploded. That made Alexandria cry, and then the salt and pepper soared out the window.

As the two continued to cry, more things spontaneously combusted or flew away,untill they calmed down.

Carter and Sadie gave each other nervous looks. Carter went pale, thrust Alexandria into his wife's hands and left without a word.

Zia rose but Sadie put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get him. I've been dealing with his bad moods for years." she winked "Usually directed at me."

She went in search for her brother.

She found him hunched up on his bed, like he was a brooding teenager again.

She approached him and sat next to him on the bed.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"You know it'll be alright, right?"

Carter's eyes flashed. "Alright? Sadie, it's just like when we were kids. Their powers are too strong, too developing to be near each other. We-"

His voice broke. "Our family will have to break up again."

"No" Sadie said firmly "We won't. They'll learn to control it. Didn't _we_?"

"Yeah, when we were older. When we could understand it." Carter said. "You know what it was like when we were small."

Sadie's expression turned grim. Of course she remembered. They had been separated at such a young age. It had taken years for their relationship to fully recover from that.

"No" Sadie said again "We aren't putting them through that. Maybe our parents gave up. They took the easy way out. But we won't. We're Kanes. We don't back down from challenges. "

Carter smiled weakly. "I think you're a Stone, now."

Sadie huffed but she grinned. "Stones, too. Now will you please come down, you are acting like you are about fourteen years old."

Carter rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at her but he went downstairs with her anyway.

In the living room, Walt and Zia were keeping Julius and Alexandria occupied. Julius had a small blanket and they were teaching him how to play peek-a-boo. He laughed every time he got his cousin to react.

Sadie smiled at her brother. "You see what I mean?"

Carter grinned back. "I guess if we can do it..." he said tentatively "so can they."

_A/N: I thought this was an important aspect to cover since it's directly said in the books it's hard to raise two powerful magicians together. Hope you liked it and thank you for reading/reviewing/ect.!_


	3. Chapter 3

Carter faced the class assembled in the large gym-like training room of Brooklyn House and sighed.

"Okay, let's go over this one more time," he said.

He was teaching them how to make warrior _shabti _but clearly none of the students specialized in statuary magic. They sat on the gym floor surrounded in useless clay debris.

As Carter groaned and scratched his head he said "Alright, pick up your pieces and let's-"

The door opened suddenly and Sadie poked her head in.

"Carter? Ramses is going positively bonkers in the living room."

Ramses was Khufu the baboon's son.

"So get him under control," Carter hissed "I'm teaching a class."

"Carter, you know the mad thing only listens to you."

"Fine," Carter sighed.

"Stay here guys," Carter told his students and dashed out.

He spent fifteen minutes just catching the adolescent baboon who evidently thought the statue of Thoth was a jungle gym before coming back scratched and bruised to his sniggering class.

"Okay..." he said tiredly "The thing you got to remember is..."

The door opened again and this time Zia came in holding Alexandria who was bawling.

"Carter, can you feed her? I have an elemental magic class to teach"

"But...but..." Carter spluttered "_I_ have a class!"

"Thanks!"

"But!"

He sighed and marched resignedly to the kitchen where he spent more time wrestling his daughter into a high chair and food into her stomach than catching the monkey.

He came back in a sour mood, baby puke added to the rips on his shirt from tangling with Ramses.

"Right," he said grumpily "What you need to do is..."

"UNCLE CARTER!"

A small boy darted into the room and clutched his legs.

"Julius," Carter said "Uncle's working right now."

"I want to play!"

"We'll play later, I promise."

Walt turned up at the door.

"Thank the gods you're here," he huffed "Sadie's at the store and Zia's putting out a fire one of her students caused in the third floor classroom. I need you to watch Jules for a while."

Carter's face went red. "I'm busy too! Why can't you just wait?"

"My mom's in the hospital," Walt said "The doctors say she'll be okay but...I just wanted to make sure."

The angry expression on Carter's face died.

"Oh...course...I'll watch him."

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver, man," Walt called as he ran off "I don't know how anything gets done around here without you."

Carter looked down at his little, beaming nephew, thinking of how he never really got to know his mother.

He thought about his sister and wife and daughter and even the crazy monkey that was Khufu's legacy.

He thought about how nice it was to be needed when he spent his whole childhood being the one protected, his role as big brother taken from him, always under his father's orders.

He smiled back at Julius and picked him up.

"Class dismissed," he announced. "I have to go play with my nephew."


End file.
